The strangeness of a Michael Bay film

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2005)

If there is always one thing prevalent in Michael Bay's body of work, he's never consistent. Since Armaggeddon, his films have consistently become more inconsistent with his original work, movies like The Rock and Bad Boys. The big difference with The Island was the fact there were enough things to like about it.
The overall design of the film was quite ravishing, especially the scenes in the utopia that all of the clones lived in. And this time around, Bay didn't try too hard to make people think he was something more than an action director. What I also liked about the film were the two leads Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It seems laughable that such an unlikely pair would be in a movie together, but they did manage to convey a little innocence and humor in a movie that looked like it would be devoid of such things. But I also thought the film was successful in the area that it didn't really take a side in the whole cloning debate. Society was greedy enough for such luxuries, and who wouldn't be if you had the money?
Sadly, the filmed seemed to fail on its biggest promise: the action. The action sequences were daring to say the least, but they were so poorly shot and executed that you couldn't really tell what was going on. Listen, we know stunt doubles were used, so would it kill anyone if the whole "shaky-hand-held" concept be dumped for better sequences? I was disappointed by the fact Djimon Hounsou and Sean Bean were such poorly written characters, for a lot could have been done with both of them considering the multiple quandaries that existed in their heads.
Overall, this is certainly a movie worth watching, especially with the way the film is exposed and color timed (compared to the "pristine" clarity of digital). I'll certainly buy it on DVD.
P.S: It was also another strike against my hometown Tucson. (just watch Revenge of the Nerds, The Wraith, Eight-Legged Freaks, Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Alice Doesn't Live here Anymore, The Thirteenth Floor, etc.)